Yes, yes, I'm sorry; it's long, but only because it includes a poem by Lord Byron! I promise to go shorter next week, and I forgive all the other Hook-ers who are too busy writing to read this excerpt.

SPOILER ALERT!!! In Pulse and Prejudice, eventually Elizabeth learns Mr. Darcy is, in fact, a vampire. In this scene, she makes an attempt to tease him about it....

“You know, I recently read a poem about you,” Elizabeth said as they walked under the moonlight. Her eyes held more humour than betrayed by her small smile.
“A poem about me? Pray, who would have written a poem about me?”
“Oh, none other than your friend, the illustrious Lord Byron.”
He glimmed at her quizzically, eyebrows raised, to which she nodded with false gravity. “That will not do,” said he. “I have it on very good authority that poetry is one of the most efficient tools for driving away love.”
“Oh, only a slight inclination; not a stout, healthy love.”
He smiled, clearly pleased with her implication, and spoke with a note of humour. “You must not keep me in suspense. How has Lord Byron illustrated my character?”
“I fear it was not complimentary,” she teased.
“Of this, I cannot pretend surprise. Pray go on.”
Elizabeth blanched and cast her eyes down, the levity leaving her face as she realized she had created a trap for herself. Noting her change in demeanour, Mr. Darcy stopped their progress and, taking her hands in his, turned her to face him, but she did not look up.
“Elizabeth?”
Through repeated readings, she had memorized a larger passage; but sensible to his own inner torment, she began her recitation after the reference to the tortures of inward hell. “But first, on earth as Vampire sent, Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent. Then ghastly haunt thy native place, And suck the blood of all thy race; There from thy daughter, sister, wife, At midnight drain the stream of life; Yet loathe the banquet which perforce, Must feed thy livid living corse; Thy victims ere they yet expire, Shall know the demon for their sire, As cursing thee, thou cursing them, Thy flowers are withered on the stem.”
Releasing one hand, he lifted her chin so she would look at him. Gazing into the depths of her eyes, he asked, “And this did not drive you away?”
Inaudibly, she mouthed the word, “No.”
He lightly brushed the back of his fingers on her cheek. “A healthy love, indeed.” He replaced her hand into the crook of his arm and walked her towards the French windows. In an accent to return their conversation to its prior lightness, he said, “I assure you, madam, your flowers are safe from me!” to which she laughed heartily.

So what did you think?
This is actually one of the first scenes I wrote for Pulse and Prejudice. (I wrote the whole thing out of order, finishing Volume I last and then revising it after my beta readers, who "couldn't remember" Pride and Prejudice, needed me to add more Austen in.)

Thanks for stopping by! Please hop on over to the other authors' sites for their hooks. Click here for a list of all this week's participants!

A few reminders....

Check back here on Thursday for a special Vampire Valentines Day post and giveaway for the Vampire Bite Blog Hop.

Because The Dark Jane Austen Book Club has chosen Pulse and Prejudice for their February selection, I have a special blog post with a giveaway on their website. Leave a comment over there, and you could win a signed copy of Pulse and Prejudice! Plus I will be interviewed on their blog next Monday, February 18th.

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Colette Saucier is a bestselling and award-winning author under multiple
pseudonyms. She began writing poems, short stories, and novellas in grade
school. Her interest in literature led her to marry her college English
professor, but eventually a love of history encouraged her to trade up to a
British historian. Technical writing dominated her career for twenty years, but
finding little room for creativity in that genre, she is now a full-time author
of fiction.

Colette’s
first novel, Pulse and Prejudice, was named “A Most Inventive Adaptation” by Elle
Magazine (April, 2016). It was the 1st Place Winner in its category in the
2013 Chatelaine Awards Romantic Fiction Contest and is listed in Chanticleer’s 2013 Best Book Listing. Colette dedicated 15 months traveling to
Europe and Britain, researching Regency England and vampire lore and
literature.

Colette was selected a “2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award”
Semi-finalist and named “Debut Author of the Year” by Austenprose for All My Tomorrows—now expanded and republished as The Proud and the
Prejudiced—which was also
chosen Austenesque Reviews “Favorite Modern Adaptation.”

Colette’s romantic thriller Alicia’s Possession was the publisher’s #1 Bestselling Romantic Suspense for 4 straight
weeks following its debut in June of 2013 and then again in January, 2014,
after being voted a “Top Ten Romance Novel of 2013” (P&E Reader’s Poll).
Colette is also the author of the controversial and erotic noir romantic
suspense Cartel Widow, an Amazon bestselling new release and Kobo
bestseller.

Due to her obsession with historical accuracy, she devoted more than
two years researching Creole Society and New Orleans in the years following the
War of 1812 for the sequel to Pulse and Prejudice, entitled Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth.

Colette lives in a lakeside community in South Louisiana with her historian
husband and their two dogs. When not writing or
researching for her next novel, she enjoys wine, reading, and cooking gourmet
meals with her husband.